What are the rules for aircraft lights and lighting? What are the rules for logging night time, and for night currency?
Here is a link to an AOPA site that explains all this (Flying Smart, May 1998)
A.The federal aviation regulations define “night” three different ways, and which one you use depends on what you want to do – log your night pilot-in-command experience or know when to turn on the aircraft’s lights.
FAR 1.1 says “‘Night’ means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time.” This is the FAA’s general definition, but some regulations add qualifications to “night,” which take precedence over the FAR 1.1 definition.
For example, FAR 61.57(b), “Night takeoff and landing experience,” which became effective August 4, 1997, says, “(1) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this section, no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, unless within the preceding 90 days that person has made at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise” [emphasis added].
For night landings to count toward PIC currency the pilot must be the sole manipulator of the flight controls and fly “the required takeoffs and landings ? in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required).”
The old FAR 61.57 said “no person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers at night (the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise (as published in the American Air Almanac)?.” According to the preamble for the new Part 61, the FAA removed the reference to the American Air Almanac because most pilots don’t have access to this document.
The FAA further qualifies “night” in FAR 91.209, “Aircraft lights,” which became effective March 11, 1996. It says, “No person may:
“(a) During the period from sunset to sunrise (or, in Alaska, during the period a prominent unlighted object cannot be seen from a distance of 3 statute miles or the sun is more than 6 degrees below the horizon) (1) Operate an aircraft unless it has lighted position lights; (2) Park or move an aircraft in, or in dangerous proximity to, a night flight operations area of an airport unless the aircraft – (i) Is clearly illuminated; (ii) Has lighted position lights; or (iii) Is in an area that is marked by obstruction lights;
“(b) Operate an aircraft that is equipped with an anticollision light system, unless it has lighted anticollision lights. However, the anticollision lights need not be lighted when the pilot in command determines that, because of operating conditions, it would be in the interest of safety to turn the lights off.” Because this paragraph doesn’t specify a time of operation, pilots should turn on the anticollision lights whenever they “operate” the aircraft, which means every time they start the engine.
Approved position lights are the colored lights that are typically on the wingtips – red on the left and green on the right – and a white “tail light,” which is often on the rudder, but can be a rear-facing white light on the wingtips. The tail light tells you which way another airplane is heading, and, in most cases, the red and green lights tell who has the right of way. If you see the red position light, it means the other airplane is on your right, which means it has the right of way – not you. If you see the green position light, you’re “good to go” because you’re to the right of the other aircraft and have the right of way.
An anticollision light system can be either a rotating beacon (usually aviation red) or strobe lights (usually aviation white), or a combination thereof. Which system an airplane has depends on when the FAA issued the aircraft’s type certificate, but a rotating beacon suffices for most aircraft.
About the only time pilots would want turn off this system is while they are flying strobe-equipped aircraft in the clouds. Anticollision lights must flash between 40 and 100 times per minute and strobes are much brighter than a rotating beacon. Because the clouds reflect light (just as fog reflects a car’s headlights), flying in them with the strobes on is akin to a celebrity being assaulted by paparazzi.
Unless an aircraft is operated for hire, it doesn’t need a landing light. An airplane offered for rent to pilots counts as being “for hire,” so it must have a landing light (unless the airplane was certificated without an electrical system, which makes night flight a moot point).